Does this apply to me?Both Visa and MasterCard impose fines for non-compliance. For fine information see the Visa or MasterCard compliance regulations. Safe HarborVisa defines safe harbor as the following: "Safe harbor provides members protection from Visa fines and compliance exposure in the event its merchant or service provider experiences a data compromise. To attain safe harbor status: 1. A member, merchant, or service provider must maintain full compliance at all times, including at the time of breach as demonstrated during a forensic investigation. 2. A member must demonstrate that prior to the compromise their merchant had already met the compliance validation requirements, demonstrating full compliance." Visa does not require Level 4 merchants to report their compliance status to their acquirer (compliance validation) but if a Level 4 merchant does not, then the merchant will NOT have protection from fines in the event of a compromise. |
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